Cosplay Creations

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My "baby" loves Cosplay (costume play) and attending Comic Con.  For this year's con she decided on three costumes and despite OUR plan of letting her create them all by herself. . . I TOOK OVER.  
CONFESSION:  I have a lot more patience teaching sewing to strangers then I do to my own children.  Does anyone else have a difficult time teaching their children to sew?  Poor girl has had to learn at school.  
Anyway, her first brilliant idea occurred when we discovered this fabulous Batman fabric at a great price.
She purchased it with the idea in mind of turning it into a corset.
She cut out the pattern after we measured her, but the pattern looked small to me (foreshadowing of trouble here when I rely upon my own sense of size perception), so I told her to cut it a little bigger.  The pieces sat for a long while because we needed some good interfacing and we kept forgetting to buy it when we went out.  Finally I picked up the interfacing and the process began!  It went together easily enough but the "little bit" Annie added to each piece ended up creating a corset almost big enough to fit me!  I made a lot of adjustments and finally ended up with a decent product.
She was very happy with it even if it did make her sit up straight all day!
Her second brilliant idea came about when we found a fantastic deal on these stilleto boots.
(Of course she regretted finding them by the end of con that day!)
She decided the boots would be perfect for her to be 
Queen Bee from DC's Young Justice.
We found a prom dress to convert because who wants to start with a pattern?!
We also found a belt for her headpiece.
We found both at our local thrift store: Consignment Circuit.
I love this shop!  
They are so helpful and have the best stuff!
The dress fit snuggly and was small around the bust. . .
 
. . .but because there was a lot of length that needed to be removed I had extra fabric to use in the alterations.  I added a few extra inches through the bust and used other pieces of the cut offs to create the cape. I cut the belt from a scrap of pleather and made a few holes in the back so it could be tied on with ribbon and then a pair of leggings completed the costume.

As you can see from her big smiles, she was very pleased with her costumes.
Her third costume, Carlos, from the witty podcast Nightvale, posed some other problems that I will tell you about in another post. I neglected to take a photo of her before she left the third day!  We need put her back into the costume for a photo session and then I can tell you the story of our many dye attempts!  Sometimes it really is easier to not know how to do these things and just go buy stuff!

Comments

Lynda said…
Lisa, These are so cool. I love the transformation of that prom dress to that super cute costume. And the headpiece. Way neat!! You are so creative!!
September 9, 2014 at 10:50 AM
Unknown said…
You really are creative. My kids come up with really creative stuff, too, but virtually none of it involves sewing, thank goodness. You and I have discussed my sewing shortcomings, so - 'nuff said.
September 9, 2014 at 11:20 AM
Thread Born said…
I'm so impressed! Love the transformation...how creative to have the image in your mind of what you wanted and be able to see it in an old prom dress and belt!
September 9, 2014 at 3:48 PM
Lisa said…
how fun!!! love to see the transformations! My daughter loves cosplay too! But she makes her costumes herself! I can offer her advice and help but she prefers to do it alone!
September 16, 2014 at 5:43 PM
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